Today, AI can impressively help anyone to write and read in almost any language. This allows a surface-level exchange of ideas, but comes at a steep price: the loss of honest engagement with the magic organ that makes us human. The challenges of learning a new language are exactly why it is still so important to do so in the AI era.如今，人工智能可以令人印象深刻地帮助任何人用几乎任何语言进行读写。这使得思想可以在表面层面进行交流，但代价高昂：失去了与那个让我们成为人类的“神奇器官”进行真诚互动的机会。学习新语言所面临的挑战，正是为什么在人工智能时代，学习语言依然如此重要的原因。
Recently I’ve received many emails in flawless English from Chinese readers of my writings. At first I was amazed at such readers’ superb English, but soon I realized they’d exploited AI—either to translate a text they’d written in Chinese or to turn a text in wobbly English into glib native-sounding English.最近，我收到了许多来自中国读者的电子邮件，他们的英语写得完美无瑕。起初，我对这些读者出色的英语水平感到惊讶，但很快我意识到他们利用了人工智能——要么是将他们用中文写好的文本进行翻译，要么是将蹩脚的英语润色成流利且地道的英语。
Such readers probably imagined they were thereby drawing nearer to me, but I felt the opposite. I told them I felt I was dealing with a false façade. It was as if a video of me dancing salsa (I’m intermediate) had been run through an AI system, and now showed me dancing like a pro. That would be truly creepy. I feel the same way about super-smooth English that arrives from afar, courtesy of AI; suddenly I feel a vast, creepy gap between us.这些读者可能以为这样做能拉近与我的距离，但我却感觉恰恰相反。我告诉他们，我觉得自己是在面对一个虚假的门面。这就好比我跳萨尔萨舞（我只是中等水平）的视频经过人工智能系统的处理，现在看起来像专业舞者一样。那真的会让人感到毛骨悚然。对于人工智能代劳而来的那种超级流畅的英语，我也有同样的感觉；突然间，我感到我们之间出现了一道巨大而令人不安的鸿沟。
As a teenager, I fell in love with foreign languages—first French, then Italian, then German, Spanish, Dutch, and Hindi. Over my lifetime, I’ve worked on at least 10 languages, several for many years. The results have often left me highly frustrated, but also have given me indescribable joy at the fact of having absorbed (although only partially, of course) some of the elusive beauty of those marvelous, magical, mysteriously alluring tongues.十几岁时，我爱上了外语——先是法语，然后是意大利语、德语、西班牙语、荷兰语和印地语。在我的一生中，我至少钻研过 10 种语言，其中几种坚持了多年。这些经历常常让我感到极度沮丧，但也让我因为能够（当然只是部分地）吸收那些美妙、神奇、神秘而迷人的语言中难以捉摸的美感，而获得了难以言表的快乐。
Why did I tackle all those languages? Out of love for different sound systems, different writing systems, different grammars, different sets of concepts, different idioms, different ways of seeing the world. I also loved repeatedly listening to songs from other lands and feeling the culture and history silently lurking in the words, melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. 我为什么要攻克所有这些语言？出于对不同语音系统、不同书写系统、不同语法、不同概念集合、不同习语以及不同世界观的热爱。我也喜欢反复聆听来自异国他乡的歌曲，感受那些潜藏在歌词、旋律、和声和节奏中的文化与历史。
To me, it is a deep joy to try to internalize another culture, to try to feel what it would have been like to grow up in, say, France, India, or China. Since my earliest-tackled and most beloved language was French, there was a period when I wished like mad that I’d grown up bilingual in French and English. My French was very good, but I wanted it to be perfect, and I was hugely jealous of people who’d grown up immersed in it. 对我来说，尝试内化另一种文化，尝试去感受在法国、印度或中国长大是什么感觉，是一种深层的快乐。由于我最早接触且最钟爱的语言是法语，曾有一段时间，我疯狂地希望自己是在法语和英语双语环境中长大的。我的法语很好，但我希望它能达到完美，我非常嫉妒那些从小沉浸在法语环境中的人。
But after some years, I realized that those effortless bilinguals didn’t experience one whit of the ecstasy that I had in dealing with French. For them, speaking French was as easy as falling off a log, so they didn’t appreciate it. 但几年后我意识到，那些毫不费力的双语者，根本体会不到我在学习法语时所感受到的那种狂喜。对他们来说，说法语就像吃饭喝水一样简单，所以他们并不懂得珍惜。
Mastering the subtle sounds of French was unprecedentedly thrilling. Learning lots of French idioms was endlessly fascinating. For example, where an English-speaker says “spinning one’s wheels,” a French-speaker says “pédaler dans la choucroute,” which translates to “pedaling in sauerkraut.” What a delightful contrast.掌握法语微妙的发音是前所未有的刺激。学习大量的法语习语令人着迷不已。例如，英语中说“spinning one’s wheels”（原地打转/徒劳无功），而法语中则说“pédaler dans la choucroute”，翻译过来就是“在酸菜里踩踏板”。多么令人愉悦的对比。
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Having conversations in fluent French, acquired by dint of immense hard work over many years, was an unmatchably rewarding experience. Figuring out all the words to an enchanting French song—say, for example, “Rue Lepic” as sung by Patachou—was a profound joy that reverberated in my soul for decades. 通过多年艰苦努力获得的流利法语对话能力，是一种无与伦比的成就感。弄懂一首迷人的法语歌曲的所有歌词——比如 Patachou 演唱的《Rue Lepic》——是一种深沉的快乐，它在我的灵魂中回荡了数十年。
Much the same is true for me and Italian, although my Italian is not as good as my French. French and Italian were both precious acquisitions, rather than free gifts from heaven, and I treasure my limited mastery of each of them beyond measure. 我和意大利语之间的情况也大抵如此，尽管我的意大利语不如法语好。法语和意大利语对我来说都是珍贵的收获，而不是从天而降的免费礼物，我无比珍视自己对这两种语言有限的掌握。
Having made French and Italian truly my own is a key defining achievement of my life. I’m not saying either of them is perfect, but I speak those mellifluous languages with as much grace and elegance as I can possibly muster. Whenever I’m taken for a native speaker (gratifyingly often in French; once in a blue moon in Italian), it gives me a huge burst of pride. 真正掌握法语和意大利语是我人生中一个关键的定义性成就。我并不是说它们中的任何一种达到了完美，但我会尽可能优雅地使用这些悦耳的语言。每当我被误认为是母语使用者时（法语中这种情况令人欣慰地频繁出现；意大利语中则偶尔发生），我都会感到无比自豪。
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Chinese is another kettle of fish, alas. I’ve struggled with it for many years, yet I’m almost always lost in a group of native speakers. It’s discouraging, but if someone were to say to me, “I have a serum I can give you via injection, and once it’s in your bloodstream, your Chinese will be as good as a native speaker’s. Want it?” 唉，中文则是另一回事了。我钻研多年，却依然在母语者的群体中感到迷茫。这很令人沮丧，但如果有人对我说：“我有一种血清，通过注射给你，一旦进入你的血液，你的中文就会和母语者一样好。要吗？”
I would answer, “No, thanks.” I want to try to conquer the Everest of the Chinese language on my own. I don’t want a helicopter ride to the summit. 我会回答：“不，谢谢。”我想靠自己去征服中文这座珠穆朗玛峰。我不想坐直升机到达顶峰。
If I never acquire fluent Chinese, so be it. As a fallible and mortal being, I will have given it my all, and I will be proud of whatever level I’ve reached through my ardent struggles. I will be sad at not having climbed higher, of course, but that is la condition humaine. We try our best, and sometimes we succeed admirably, and sometimes we don’t. It’s all part of being human. 如果我永远无法精通中文，那就这样吧。作为一个会犯错的凡人，我已经尽了全力，我会为通过热切的奋斗所达到的任何水平感到自豪。当然，没能爬得更高我会感到难过，但这就是“人类的境况”（la condition humaine）。我们尽力而为，有时我们取得了令人钦佩的成功，有时则不然。这都是身为人类的一部分。
Learning another language is one of the deepest and most human things one can possibly do. Language is at the core of who we are. Language makes us who we are. I don’t want an injection for native-level mastery of Chinese, or any other language. And as for AI producing glib Chinese for me, or handing me Chinese websites on an English platter, or even borrowing my voice to express my thoughts aloud in a perfect Chinese accent, no thank you. 学习另一种语言是人类所能做的最深刻、最人性化的事情之一。语言是我们核心的一部分。语言造就了我们。我不想要什么能让我精通中文或其他任何语言的注射剂。至于人工智能为我生成流利的中文，或者把中文网站翻译成英语呈现在我面前，甚至借用我的声音用完美的中文口音表达我的想法，不，谢谢。
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I want to be me, 100%, not a human-machine hybrid. I want to savor languages directly, not through a creepy robotic interface. 我想做 100% 的自己，而不是一个人机混合体。我想直接品味语言，而不是通过一个令人毛骨悚然的机器人界面。
Maybe I’m just a dinosaur and attitudes like mine are fading fast these days, but that’s how I grew up, and that’s how I’ll feel till my dying day.也许我只是个老古董，像我这样的态度在当今时代正迅速消逝，但这就是我成长的方式，也是我至死都会坚持的感觉。
